Connectors provided with guide members to protect bending of male contacts disposed in their housings are known. One example of such connectors is disclosed in, for example, Japanese UM Publication No. 63(1988)-116985 and is described hereunder by reference to FIGS. 16 and 17.
Illustrated in FIG. 16 is a longitudinal cross sectional view of female type and male type connectors before mating. On the other hand, FIG. 17 shows a longitudinal cross sectional view of the both connectors in the mated condition.
Disposed in a housing 212 of the female type connector 210 are a plurality of male contacts 214. A leading end 214a of each male contact 214 extends through a respective through-hole in a guide member 216 which is temporarily retained within the housing 212 by means of a projection 212a formed in the housing 212 latchingly received in a recess 216a in the guide member 216. When the female type connector 210 and the male type connector 220 are mated with each other, the guide member 216 moves to the rear end portion of the male contacts 214 by being pushed by the male type connector 220, thereby establishing the engagement between the male contacts 214 and respective receptacle or female contacts 222 as best shows in FIG. 17.
As mentioned above, insertion of the leading ends of the male contacts in the respective through holes in the guide member of the connector provided with such guide member effectively protects bending of the male contacts. On the other hand, as both the male type and female type connectors are mated, the guide member moves toward the rear end portions of the male contacts by being pushed by the male type connector.
There are circumstances where both the connectors 210, 220 are to be mated and unmated more than once. If the guide member 216 remains at the rear end portion after unmating the connectors, the male contacts or contact pins 214 are unprotected and thus may be bent by external force applied thereto before being mated again with the matable connector. In order to solve this problem, the prior art connector is provided with additional means as best shown in FIG. 18.
A latching arm 234 is provided with a male type connector 220 to engage with an engaging hole 230 in an end wall 218 of a guide member 216 when both connectors 210, 220 are mated. In unmating the male type connector 220, the guide member 216 is pulled back to its initial position as best shown in FIG. 18(A). The latching arm 234 abuts against a hold-down plate 232 extending through a guide plate portion 217 when both the connectors are mated, thereby establishing assured engagement with the engaging hole 230. The hold-down plate 232, the latching arm 234 and the engaging hole 230 cooperate with one another so that the guide member 216 remains at the initial location to effectively protect the contact pins 214 as long as the female type connector 210 is unmated with the matable connector.
It is typical that the guide member is temporarily retained in the housing with a weak force so that the leading ends of the male contacts are protected from being bent or maintain proper alignment until both male type and female type connectors are brought into mating relationship. The reason is that if the retention force is too strong, both connectors are hard to be mated with each other. As a result, in the conventional connectors with guide members had a problem that the guide members accidentally move from the latched front position toward the rear end portion of the male contacts by vibration of the connectors are accidentally hit during transportation of the connectors.
Also, the use of the hold-down plate 212 and the latching arm 234 of the prior art connectors occupy a certain space in the housing, thereby limiting high density positioning of the contacts. Additionally, the latching arm 234 extends long enough from the guide member 220 that it may be broken or otherwise damaged when it is handled individually or the connectors are left unmated.